Well, it’s the Christmas season, and you know what that means — time for the annual War on Christmas! Bill O’Reilly’s ramping up to cover one outrageous story of horrible persecution after another, with a flashy animated rotating “War on Christmas” logo, as atheists and pagans do their best to destroy religion in America! They’re evil and they must be stopped before it’s too late!

Luckily for us all, brave tea party patriots in Redding, California (in a group called the Redding Tea Party Patriots) have teamed up with substitute teacher Merry Hyatt to fight back against the tide of godless heathens, with an initiative to make the playing of Christmas carols in public schools mandatory. Yes, really.

“Bottom line is Christmas is about Christmas,” said Erin Ryan, president of the Redding Tea Party Patriots. “That’s why we have it. It’s not about winter solstice or Kwanzaa. It’s like, ‘wow you guys, it’s called Christmas for a reason.’ “

Ryan said Hyatt’s initiative falls under the umbrella of causes the group supports, which concern limited government, following the constitution and fiscal responsibility.

Because nothing says “limited government” and “following the constitution” like using the power of the government to force your own religious beliefs into public schools!

Maybe the Redding Tea Party Patriots might need a little refresher course in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. But their hearts are in the right place — well, actually, no, they’re not.

“I have two words to say about Ms. Hyatt’s proposal: blatantly unconstitutional,” said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is based in Washington, D.C., and has a local chapter in Sacramento.

Boston said he heard about the initiative in the news, which isn’t surprising considering national newspapers such as The New York Times have published articles on Hyatt’s efforts.

“In the unlikely event she got enough signatures to put it on the ballot and the even more unlikely event California passed it, it would be struck down by the courts,” Boston said. “The courts have been very clear that public schools aren’t supposed to be in the business of promoting or advocating religion.”

Boston said he thinks Hyatt’s initiative represents a larger issue of religious conservatives being unhappy with the changes resulting from American society becoming more diverse. “The frustration some religious conservatives have is they want a mythological religious America that probably never existed,” he said.

Of course, he would say that — he’s an evil godless heathen!

Hyatt, a substitute teacher who moved to Redding from Riverside, said her motivation for the initiative was to help restore children’s moral compasses by inviting Jesus to school Christmas parties.

“He’s the prince of peace; he’s the only one who can get these kids to stop being so violent,” she said in November.

Watch out if He gets into the egg nog, though.

UPDATE at 12/10/09 5:22:24 pm:

Did you know that the “War on Christmas” meme was started by a white supremacist? Isn’t that special? (Hat tip: Sharmuta.)

Before it became part of mainstream conservative punditry, the leading proponent of the War on Christmas was a former magazine writer and editor named Peter Brimelow. A virulent anti-immigration crusader whose views were considered extreme by mainstream conservative journals like National Review, Brimelow founded a website called vdare.com that soon was at the forefront of the fight to sanctify Christmas cheer. Beginning in 1999, Brimelow ran a competition to spotlight offenders in the War on Christmas. The inaugural villain was the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which earned the dubious honor for hosting a holiday party dubbed “A Celebration of Holiday Traditions.” The following year, amazon.com became a target of Brimelow’s wrath for subjecting consumers to the nondenominational greeting “Happy Holidays!” (In 2003, VDare was classified as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center for providing a platform for white nationalist viewpoints.)

And who else writes for white supremacist site vdare.com? Why, Michelle Malkin, of course! Ho ho ho!